Broughton tunnels: What was the real reason for them

MORGANTON - They rest deep under the earth's surface and wind through the campus of Broughton Hospital.

When the hospital was built in the 1870s to accommodate the mentally ill, it was built with a series of tunnels, said William F. Brown III, the safety director for the hospital.

Rumors as to what the tunnels were actually used for have swarmed for years, Brown said, but the actual reason for their existence isn't an exciting one at all, he added.

"They are just utility tunnels," Brown said. "All of the tunnels end at the steam plant."

Seth Hunt, the director of the hospital, said some of the rumors included using the tunnels to transport patients who were extremely dangerous, their use in the underground railroad or as a place to chain patients up against a wall and leave them for the rats.

Determined to dispel the rumors, Brown and Hunt left the comfort of their offices, grabbed a flashlight and went down under. Brown used a key - only certain employees have one - to get through a metal door. A brightly lighted, descending hallway with arched ceilings was on the other side.

"This really isn't a tunnel," Hunt said, adding that the real tunnels weren't as nice.

Once they got to the bottom of the hallway they came into a room with several dark tunnels leading in different directions. When Brown shone his flashlight into a tunnel, the light disappeared in the darkness.

"Watch where you step," Brown said. "Be careful."

In some parts, the floor was uneven and covered with debris and while Brown and Hunt made their way through the tunnels they had to duck under hot steam lines.

"See that light up ahead," Brown said. "That's a man hole."

Hunt joked that the tunnels were a good place to come and secretly listen to employees talk. After searching through the tunnels the men concluded that there were no signs of patient abuse or locks and chains. And the only sign of death that the two men could find was the skeleton of a dead rat.

"I'd say he's been there for a while," Hunt said of the shattered bones.

Brown also dispelled the rumor that the tunnels were used to transport "crazy" patients by saying that the tunnels only went to one place, the steam room.

Lights mystify generations

A slave devotedly searching the hills for his beloved master, a murdered woman returning to haunt her husband, spirits of Native American women searching for their slain husbands following a great battle -there are numerous theories and legends offered in explanation of the mysterious aurora known as the "Brown Mountain Lights."

For hundreds of years, the unsolved mystery of the lights has drawn attention to Burke County. As with any unexplainable mystery, various descriptions exist about the lights.

Most accounts claim that the lights appear as pulsating orbs of light, usually just below or above the ridge of Brown Mountain.

Red and white are two of the most common colors reported, although there are many claims that the lights are blue, green, yellow and orange.

Appearances can range from anywhere between a few seconds to several minutes.

Those who claim to have seen the lights at a close range have likened them to a large ball of fire hovering several feet above the ground, moving away when approached.

A few of the most popular places to view the lights are the Brown Mountain overlook, located 20 miles north of Morganton on N.C. 181, Wiseman's View overlook, located five miles south of Linville Falls on old N.C. 105/N.C. 1238, and the Lost Cove Cliffs overlook, located on the Blue Ridge Parkway at mile-marker 310, two miles north of the N.C. 181 junction.

They are reportedly best seen after dusk on clear nights, often after a rain.

The lights gained fame in 1913 when the U.S. Geological Survey conducted the first of two studies to determine a scientific explanation of the lights.

They concluded that the lights were actually reflections of headlights from locomotives traveling through the Catawba Valley south of Brown Mountain.

However, a flood three years later, in 1916, gushed through the valley, destroying railroad bridges and stopping travel for weeks.

Roads and power lines also were washed away in the flood, but the lights continued to appear.

The second study reported that the lights were caused by spontaneous combustion of marsh gases, but there are no known marshy places on Brown Mountain.

The lights are so well-known that the TV show, "The X Files," based an episode on them called "Field Trip," which first aired Sept. 5, 1999, in the show's sixth season.

Countless other research groups and universities have studied the lights, including the U.S. Weather Bureau, which reported in 1919 that the Brown Mountain lights were similar to the Andes light of South America.

The Asheville-based paranormal research team, League of Energy Materialization and Unexplained Phenomena Research, has compiled 15 years worth of scientific research on the lights, and maintains a Web site, www.brownmountainlights.com.

Theories that the lights are atmospheric reflections of electric lights in Morganton, Lenoir and Hickory are debunked by the fact that the lights were documented to have been seen before the Civil War and electricity, even as far back as 1200, when the Cherokee and Catawba Indians roamed the area.

Cherokee legend explains the lights as the spirits of women searching for their husbands and sweethearts after a major battle on Brown Mountain between the Catawba and Cherokee tribes.

The lights were also documented by Geraud de Brahm, a German engineer who was reported to have been the first white man to explore the region in 1771.

Science Frontiers online reports that in May 1977, the Oak Ridge Isochronous Observation Network put a 500,000 candlepower arc light in Lenoir as a group gathered on the overlook on N.C. 181, approximately 20 miles north of Morganton and 3.5 miles west of Brown Mountain.

When the light was turned on, the observers saw an orange light hovering above Brown Mountain.

The experiment accounted for lights that appear above the crest, but offers no explanation for the lights that many see pulsating and moving above and below the top of the mountain.

ORION also detonated charges of dynamite on Brown Mountain to see if the lights could be seismic, but no lights were produced.

Joshua P. Warren with the league team wrote a report based on the group's research on the Brown Mountain Lights.

In it, the team suggested that the lights are of a plasmic origin.

"Considering all data available, the most likely explanation was that those primary illuminations traditionally known as the 'Brown Mountain Lights' are a form of plasma.

Plasma is the product of so much energy being added to a gas (including air) that one or more electrons are ripped from each atom producing a swirling, luminous mass of free-floating electrons and atoms that have a positive charge.

According to David Hackett, ORION also concluded the lights are most likely a plasma phenomenon.

Plasmas would indeed interact with nearby human observers since the plasma field would be influenced by the field of a human body," the report states.

Explanations for the lights' origin ranges from scientific ones of Foxfire, earth lights, radioactivity, plasma, St.

Elmo's fire, lightning discharges, seismic movement, swamp gas and reflections of artificial lights, to paranormal ones such as UFOs, giant fireflies and spirits.

No single explanation completely covers all aspects of the lights, always leaving a "what if ?" or a loophole.

Although normally very skeptical, I personally can vouch for the fact that the lights do exist.

After years of hearing about them and doubting their existence, I saw them from the N.C. 181 overlook one night.

I was convinced that the light I saw above the Brown Mountain ridge slightly blocked from view by a tree near my vantage point was only an orange- colored star.

I attributed its dimming and brightening effect to my lack of sleep.

When it started moving to the left, away from the tree, I reasoned that it was a plane that was too far away for me to see its blinking lights.

However, when the light completely disappeared as I watched it, I became a believer.

The Brown Mountain Lights - do you believe it, or not?

Do you believe in ghosts? Folks say River's End is haunted

RUTHERFORD COLLEGE - Most people love a good ghost story, but actually being confronted with ghostly incidences is a different story.

River's End Restaurant on Malcolm Boulevard has a long and varied history, with some of it dotted with unexplained occurrences.

Milton Pons, a former owner of the restaurant, said the home has been used not only as a restaurant, but started out as a private home and also served, for a time, as dormitories for Rutherford College. Pons has since sold the place.

"I've been there almost 16 years and I've never seen a ghost there yet," Pons said.

However, Pons said an employee was working in the restaurant by herself one night and heard a door slam.

No one else was in the establishment.

The incident scared the employee so much, she locked up the restaurant and went home.

Pons also said some of the doors shut by themselves sometimes.

"Maybe a ghost shuts them, I don't know,"Pons said.

According to the house's history, the place was built around 1893 by Theodore Franklin after he married for the second time.

"He married this young girl and they spent their honeymoon in a hotel in Connelly Springs," Pons said.

Franklin built the house as a scaledown version of the hotel, Pons said.

The place also was used as a dormitory for the college, and it was used as a residence again.

Emma and Henry Harvey Kincaid bought the house in 1945 and lived in the house for more than 35 years.

Mary Kincaid Miller grew up in the house with her siblings.

Throughout the years they lived in the house, the Kincaid family would hear unexplainable sounds in the home.

"We would hear doors slam but we didn't think much about it," Miller said. "We thought it was the wind blowing through."

At other times the stairs in the home would creak, but Miller's father explained it away by saying the house was settling.

But it was one particular night that vividly is burned into Miller's memory.

Miller's father worked third shift, so many nights she would sleep in her parents' bedroom with her mother. The two were in the bedroom when they heard noises.

Miller's mother decided she was going to find out if someone was in the home.

The two went out into the hallway.

"It sounded like somebody came up the stairs," Miller said.

When it got to the top of the stairs, Miller said it sounded as if someone had cardboard or stout paper and was hitting it as they went back down the stairs.

"And there was nobody there," Miller said.

"She (Miller's mother) said, 'Get back in the bedroom.'"

When the two ran back into the bedroom, they shut the door and pulled a dresser in front of the door.

Carl Webb bought the house and turned it into a restaurant called the "Farmhouse." He later changed the name to the "Steakhouse." Although he said he never experienced anything unusual,Webb said he had an employee who claimed she came into work early one morning and the chairs in the front room were facing each other.

The night before, the chairs had been sitting side-by-side.

Some employees also were afraid to go into a small basement in the house that was used for storage.

"They claimed the lights would come on by themselves," Webb said.

Although he said he used to feel strange being there at night,Webb said, "I never really experienced anything." Was it a ghost or something associated with just normal sounds a house makes late at night?

An Irish Ghost Story

This story happened a while ago in Dublin , and even though it sounds like an Alfred Hitchcock tale, its true.

John Bradford, a Dublin University student was on the side of the road hitchhiking on a very dark night and in the midst of a storm. The night was rolling on and no car went by. The storm was so strong he could barely see a few feet ahead of him.

Suddenly, he saw a car slowly coming towards him and stopped. John, desperate for shelter and without thinking about it, got into the car and closed the door.. Only to realize there was nobody behind the wheel and the engine wasn't on!!

The car started moving slowly. John looked at the road ahead and saw a curve approaching. Scared, he started to pray, begging for his life. Then, just before the car hit the curve, a hand appeared through the window and turned the wheel.

John, paralyzed with terror, watched as the hand repeatedly came through the window, but never touched or harmed him. Shortly thereafter John saw the lights of a pub appear down the road, so, gathering strength, he jumped out of the car and ran to it.

Wet and out of breath, he rushed inside and started telling everybody about the horrible experience he had just had. A silence enveloped the pub when everybody realized he was crying and...wasn't drunk.

Suddenly, the door opened, and two other people walked in from the stormy night. They, like John, were also soaked and out of breath. Looking around, and seeing John Bradford sobbing at the bar, one said to the other…

. "Look Paddy.....thar's that bloomin' idiot tha' got in ta car while we's wor pushing it!!!!"

The 1859 Cafe, Hickory, NC

The 1859 Cafe on 2nd Avenue in Hickory, NC is haunted by a gentle blond woman. The house was built in 1859 by Henry Link to be both a home and a general store. No one knows who the ghostly woman is, just that she is blond and wears a long white dress. She has appeared in the dining room to waitresses relaxing there after their shifts. One of the staff was cleaning the mirror in the women's restroom when she saw the blond woman in the glass. Lights flicker a couple of times a week and some staff think it's the ghost, but the owner is skeptical about this. She hasn't seen the ghost, and there was a faulty power transformer where the electricity came into the cafe. However, her husband took a picture of just the building for their liquor license application, and when it was developed and enlarged, there was a figure in the lower corner of it. It appears to be a fair haired young woman in white, walking away from the building. The face is unclear.

Story from hauntedtravels.com

The Old Courthouse Theatre

The theatre is an old beautiful building in downtown Concord that is used by thespians to put on wonderful plays. This building has a lot of history behind it. It was built in 1922.

It was a Baptist church before it was bought by the Old courthouse theatre in 1976. Before the church was built in 1922 there was another church standing there. It was eventually torn down.

The parking lot of the old theatre used to be filled with houses. Now and then sinkholes will appear in the parking lot & have to be filled. This theatre is haunted by several ghosts.

The ghost that is infamous among the actors is “The Deacon”. This is a man that wears a dark suit. A man who doesn’t like it when things are interrupted in the normal flow of things. He does not like musicals. When a guest director is doing a show at the old theatre; the mood changes quickly. Things often go missing or end up in odd places of the theatre. Lights go on & off.

At times the spotlights, which are tightly screwed in, will move from one position to another when no-one is around.

People often report seeing a dark figure lurking around in the balcony. They hear footsteps & at times singing. When alone in the theatre, the patrons will sing to the Deacon. It seems to calm the paranormal activity.

Many people volunteer to help out at the theatre. Once a married couple was there cleaning. The husband and wife were on opposite sides of the building. The husband later mentioned to his wife that when he heard her singing earlier it was beautiful. The wife replied with “I didn’t sing anything”. Knowing that they were the only two around, this sent chills up their spine.

The music director, Laura, once came in the theatre & knew that she was alone. She was upstairs in her office working when she heard someone jingling their keys on the stage. She then went to the stage & all the lights were off. No-one was there.

It is a joke among the people who help out with the old theatre. The deacon is always up to no good.
Once, a gentleman that didn’t believe in ghosts & often teased others for believing in them; was alone in the theatre. He was working on the lights at the control desk when he heard something downstairs in the shop. He ignored it the first time. The second time was much louder. He then ran to the shop thinking that someone had broken into the building. When he got there, no-one was around & nothing had been moved. He then called out “Deacon, I am leaving. I’m going to turn off the lights. The place is yours!”

This must be a real haunt for a skeptic to get upset. Donations are often made to the theatre from clothing to cleaning materials.

A donation was made from the family of a woman who had passed away. They donated all of her clothing & very personal things that shouldn’t have been given. They kept most of it in the old fellowship hall. They used it for storage.

Cindy, a volunteer at the theatre, taught a class one evening in the fellowship hall. She had left the place a mess. Chairs were all over the room. Upon returning the next morning, she discovered that the place had been straightened up, with all the chairs folded & stacked against the wall. No-one claims to have done this good deed. It is thought that the woman who passed was looking for her personal belongings & cleaned up the place.

In a study of the theatre done by a local medium, it was discovered that an older woman lurked around dressed in old style clothing with pale, ghostly skin. When people get into squabbles over this & that, the paranormal activity hits an all time high. These spirits are not evil, but they are not good. They are simply co-existing with our local talent.

When additions were put on the building the electricians complained of hearing someone walking around in the theatre. No-one was there & they didn’t know of the ghost stories.

The Old Courthouse Theatre is opening a new play called “Into the Woods”. Opening night is Thursday the 27th of September at 8:00 pm. preceding the opening is the ribbon cutting for the new additions made to the building. This ceremony is to honor J. Carlyle & other primary donators.

The mayor will be cutting the ribbon at 7pm. Please feel free to attend the plays at The Old Courthouse Theatre. You will find drama from the most talented people in our area, along with the drama of the un-dead.

*Information provided by Anne Wilson and Lenore Young of the Old Courthouse Theatre.

Written by- Ashley Shaw

Local Haunted Places

Troutman - Shinville graveyard - there is supposedly a witch buried in this graveyard. there have been numerous sightings of a woman standing among the tombstones and if you stop the car she will look toward you and then vanish.

Mt. Pleasant - Piney Grove AME Zion church (now closed) in Mt. Pleasant is said to be haunted by the habitants of the graveyard.

Blowing Rock- A room on the third floor of the Green Park Inn Hotel is haunted by a woman who died there years ago. She has been spotted walking on the third floor.

Brown Mountain- near Grandfather Mountain- The Brown mountain lights appear along the ridge of the mountain- moving quickly. When you try to get up the mountain to see them closer- they disappear. No-one knows the cause of these lights. Some say it is the spirit of Ancient Cherokee Indians. Others say it is a slave guiding passengers on the underground railway to safe grounds. Either way, it’s still creepy!

Charlotte - Founder’s college in Charlotte is said to be haunted by the girl whose corpse was sold to the medical department.

Charlotte - Queen’s college in Charlotte has a number of haunted places. People have experienced cold spots all over campus & some have even seen apparitions.

Concord - Sally’s Bridge - located off Poplar Tent Road in Concord is said to be haunted by a young girl who was driving the bridge one night in the rain with her baby. She ran off the bridge. After the wreck she searched for her child everywhere. She never found her & they both eventually died. It is said that when it is raining, you can stop on the bridge & a girl will beg you to help look for her child, even try to open your car door, before disappearing.

Hickory- Alice M. Raeford Memorial Center- It is said that doorways disappear after you pass through them in this building. There have been sightings of shadows and mists. Some hear whispers. One person even reported being pushed by an unseen hand.

Lenoir - Chapel of Rest - It is said that the pastor of this church became very distraught by his wife cheating on him. He committed suicide. Some have heard footsteps. Others have seen the pastor swinging at night. It is said that you can find a bible on the podium that tells you when, where, & how you will die!

Morganton - Broughton Hospital - Ghosts have been spotted late hours when all patients are in the bed. Some have heard screams from parts of the hospital that are closed down.

Mt. Pleasant- Henkelite Cemetery- This is a cemetery for confederate soldiers. It is said that at night time you can hear gun shots, and actions of the civil war.

Compiled by Ashley Shaw

Hauntings at Mitchell Community College - Mooresville Center

Thank you for providing me a forum to share my experiences.

Allow me to give you a little background information concerning Mitchell Community College Mooresville Center. The college is located on Academy Street. The proprerty in which the college occupies was once home to Mooresville's first boy's academy.

Local folklore claims the incorporation for the Town Of Mooresville was signed on the property.

There is a building currently on the property that once served as the gymnasium for Mooresville Central High School and was constructed in the early 1900's. The Central High School closed it's doors in the mid 1900's.

The old gymnasium remained vacant until the early 1980's when it was purchased by Mitchell Community College and opened as Mitchell Community College's Mooresville Center. The old gymnasium was remodeled and used as classrooms for MCC-Mooresville.

I began working at MCC- Mooresville in 1997 as the evening director. My job was to supervise all college operations and close the college at night by insuring all staff/ students were out of the building before locking the classroom doors and arming the alarm system.

However, after two months of employment, I learned there are staff and students that never leave the building.

I experienced numerous paranormal events throughout my career with MCC-Mooresville.

One night in particular, I went to the old gym to close up for the night. The last class was scheduled to leave Room # 207 at 9:50 P.M., and according to my schedule it was a business management class. Therefore, I went to lock up Room # 207 at 9:50 P.M. as scheduled.

However, I realized the instructor was still teaching class. In an effort to not to be rude by interrupting class and asking them to leave; I opted to be patient. I stood outside the closed door and listened to the instructor lecture on stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc. I looked at my watch and it said 10:00 P.M.

I made the decision to politely inform the instructor of the time and ask them to leave. As I stepped toward the door, he began dismissing class. I waited another five minutes and no one exited the class and I heard no one talking.

I opened the door and the classroom was empty. This event startled me because there were no other doors in the classroom except for the door which I was standing in front of for the past ten minutes.

This event was the first of many paranormal events.

In 2000, the college expanded and added a new building which connected to the old gymnasium. The paranormal events became very common after the construction of the new building. The new building was built in the same spot that the old Central High School once stood.

I had locked up for the evening and was preparing to go home. I decided to walk to the concession area (located in the basement of the old gymnasium) and get a soda. As you enter the basement, Room # 098 is on the left and has no windows nor exterior doors. The only door of the classroom faces the hallway which you must walk down to reach the concession area.

As I walked to the concession area there was a loud, grainy, raspy, female voice that said, "Come here! Boy!" from inside the dark room. Needless to say, I no longer wanted a soda and literally ran at full speed back to my office.

The elevator of the building was another area of frequent paranormal activitiy. The elevator was located where the new building connected to the old gymnasium.

One particular night, the only people in the building were myself and a nursing program director. At approximately 10:20 P.M. the nursing director was leaving for the night and as she waited for the elevator she heard a male voice coming from Room # 098. She stated she distinctly heard a very demanding voice teaching class and asked me whom was in the classroom. I stated to her that she and I were the only people in the building.

Therefore, we both walked down to the classroom and discovered no one was there. Upon further questioning, I asked the director what she heard. She stated the male voice said in a demanding way, "Open your History books to page 7!" "I said open your History book to page 7 !!!". The director then stated she heard someone slam their hand on a desk very hard.

There were many times when staff would report going into the building on weekends to catch up on some work and hear children laughing, playing, and running down the creaky wooden floors of the old gymnasium. However, when the staff went to investigate the noise, there were no children in the building.

I finally resigned from the college eight years later because the paranormal activitiy became more abundant.

On a nightly basis, when I was in my office alone, you could hear footsteps walking up the plastic coated stairs in front of my office. Moreover, due to fire regulations, we were required to leave the classroom doors closed. You could hear classroom doors being open and shut at the end of the hall at the elevator although I was the only person in the building.

Thank you for allowing me to share my stories. The paranormal events which I have described to you are all true and have solidified my belief in the supernatural.

This article was submitted by Robbie Puckett.

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